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Yesterday gave us a new edition of the PC Gaming Show that effectively kicked off the previews for the games to watch out for in 2024, dubbedPC Gaming Show: Most Wanted.The highlight was a countdown of twenty-five anticipated games, chosen by a panel of seventy industry professionals, including the likes ofSword of the Sea,Skate Story,Haunted Chocolatier,and more, including the number one pick,STALKER 2.Alongside the countdown were several trailers and announcements, both for games on and off the list, showing off just how varied next year could possibly be for gaming. But as this was a two-hour show with over a few dozen announcement, this writer has decided to gather up a select batch of featured games from the event that came across as the most interesting and eye-catching, all gathered here in one place for you to check out, with links to each trailer in the titles. Enjoy!
Holstin was one of the games with a new trailer that made the “Most Wanted” list, and it’s not hard to see why. Comparisons toSignalismight seem unavoidable, both being nods to classic survival horror with a more low-tech art style, but Holstin’s mystery of mass possession in 1990s Poland has one unique thing going for it, and that would be its use of perspective shifts. As seen in the new trailer, whenever you actually aim in combat, the view shift from top-down to a third-person view, switching to something akin to Resident Evil 4. We’ll have more to say later once we’ve spent more time with the game’s demo,which is out now on Steam,but indeed, this looks like developers Sonka could have the next big horror hit.
Harold Halibut
Well, this one has been a long time coming, but Slow Bros.' long-awaited sci-fi adventure game, Harold Halibut, is finally set to come out, with an Early 2024 release window now set. Of course, it’s easy to see why it took this long, given the size and scope of stop-motion game such as this, which makes for impressive visuals that are backed up with the creative setting of a submerged spaceship, complete with bizarre alien encounters. And having been lucky enough to play a demo of this game a couple of years about at the Tribeca Festival, I can confirm that it’s ridiculously easy to get sucked into the world on display here, so it looks like the final product should hopefully be quite the engrossing experience.
Wild Bastards
Void Bastardscreators Blue Manchu are back again, this time trading in a ragtag group of space prisoners for a ragtag group of space outlaws. Yes, the spiritual successor to the hit roguelike FPS game is taking a Western twist, delivering an even more colorful cast of characters (including thirteen playable misfits) with a different variety of locales and weapons, allowing for even more intense firefights with a lot of opportunities for mayhem, all while maintaining a touch of turn-based strategy to help liven things up even further. With so many opportunities on display here for wonderfully chaotic and classic yet futuristic Western firefights, Wild Bastards looks like one impressive FPS to look out for next year.
Is it weird that we have an abundance of deckbuilding games, and an abundance of city-building games, yet I still welcome a city-building game built around deckbuilding mechanics? Maybe I’m just nostalgic for the likes ofConcrete Jungle.But Wondernaut Studio have still constructed what appears to be an impressive-looking strategy game so far (thoughthe Steam pageprovides a greater look than the trailer) with Ironhive, making great use of the post-apocalyptic setting to create impressive visuals, and putting emphasis on stability as a core mechanic, trying to stave off yet another collapse.
One’s a nun in an alternate nineteenth century Russia, and other is their travelling companion, the devil themselves. Together, they fight crime! Okay, not really, it’s more of a third-person journey of self-discovery from developers Odd Meter that tackles such themes as religion and authority. But given that this game appears to dabble in a lot of surreal imagery, as seen with the end of this “remixed” trailer, you may as well expect such craziness to happen. Whatever the case, Indika still looks like an impressive adventure game with hints of an intriguing story and a lot of insane twists, so it has our attention.
Demonschool
Going from the devil to demons in general, Necrosoft’s upcoming tactical RPG Demonschoolhas already grabbed our attention in the past,so we’re always happy to see more of it. But for those who find games in the genre to be daunting at first, then don’t worry, Creative Director Brandon Sheffield is here in the latest trailer to show off the chess-like movement, combined with combinations of character skills, which can all be used to plan out the perfect attack in a terrific bit of strategy. Throw in a cast of fifteen playable characters and jaw-dropping graphics, and this is set to be a potentially-perfect Persona successor when it comes out in Q2 of next year.
“Okay, so what if that health meter spine from Dead Space was sentient, and attached itself to a cyberpunk street artist, and they went full Upgrade on an evil corporation in a third-person action game?” That’s what I like to imagine what the pitch for Spine was like, and then I like to imagine the person who immediately said that was handed a huge sack of money, because duh. But this game is going the extra distance by apparently bringing in full-on action movie specialists in order to help developers Nekki craft the perfect ode to their favorite movie genres, so at very least, expect amazing choreography and setpieces. Can’t wait to see more of this in action, but if you can’t wait, there’s alsoa comic on Webtoon right now,ready to introduce you to the game’s world.
Cryptical Path
Sometimes, we end up trapped in a metaphorical prison of our own making. And then you have something like Cryptical Path from developers Old Skull Games, where you play as an architect literally trapped in a prison of their own making…and your own making as well, as this game bills itself as the first “rogue-builder” where you can actually plan out and build the dungeon that you’ll be escaping from. It’s an intriguing concept for a 2D action-platformer like this, to say the least, and witha demo on Steamavailable now, you can give it an initial shot and see just how well a taste of this “rogue-building” is, hopefully leading to a rather unique treat next year.
Well, I didn’t expect any possible odes to Star Wars Episode I: Racer on by current indie game bingo card, but I’d think we all win with Reclaim Interactive upcoming game Deathgrip. It has hovercrafts, arcade racing, more combat options, has the name “Deathgrip”…I mean, I’m pretty sure there are other HG staff members who can more properly explain how well it performs as a racing game, especially witha demo of the game out right now, but this is a case where I am a man of simple tastes, and just the fact that this is an exciting-looking game about hovercraft battle racing called “Deathgrip” is all I need right now, at least until the game actually arrives in Early Access next year.
Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn
During a showcase from Kepler Interactiveearlier this year,I commented on how they seemed to be making more prominent moves towards being a truly major player in the indie game publishing scene. And indeed, they came to the PC Gaming Show with guns a-blazing, as these next three entries show (I didn’t even includeUnrailed 2and the news ofTchia’sSteam release). First up is A44’s action-RPG game Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn, which showed off more gunslinging, god-killing, and even adorable animal sidekicks in such a quick trailer. It looks like a fantastic world with a lot of well-crafted action from a variety of sources, so now I can’t wait until Summer when the game finally sees a release.
Next up came a pair of release dates for two highly-anticipated titles from Kepler, starting with Hadoque’s psychedelic metroidvania game, Ultros. Aside from providing a deeper look at the trippy world that you’ll be exploring, which is described as a “cosmic uterus,” we also get a look at some of the extractor-based mechanics, used to unlock new abilities. Given that I previously wrote a whole preview for the game (seen in prior link), there isn’t a whole lot else to say, just that Ultros comes out on February 13, meaning it gets the opportunity to possibly wind up as one of the year’s earliest hits. And just in time to deliver the gift of a “cosmic uterus” exploration game for Valentine’s Day!
Pacific Drive
Out of all the games here, Ironwood Studios' Pacific Drive was easily the one that ranked the highest on the PC Gaming Show’s “Most Wanted” list, sitting at number six, meaning that for at least one brief moment, this was a more anticipated game than Grand Theft Auto 6, which is particularly ironic given that this is a game about having to maintain a relatively mundane station wagon…albeit one that you may graft a ton of science onto. Again,having covered this unique sci-fi survival game already,there’s not much more to add at the moment, aside from the trailer really building up the epic feel and providing more hints to the story, a peek into how this chunk of the Pacific Northwest became more surreal. Pacific Drive arrives on February 22, a short distance away from Ultros, because Kepler apparently wants to give us lot to play with then…
Penny’s Big Breakaway
Penny’s Big Breakaway was first unveiled during this Summer’s big Nintendo Direct showcase, but heavy-hitting announcements such as as theSuper Mario RPGremake and the Thousand-Year Door remaster might have caused it to get lost in the shuffle. Which is a shame, seeing as how it’s a platformer coming from Evening Star, a team that includes Sonic Mania veteran Christian Whitehead as a game’s Creative Director. And in its new animated trailer, you can already see the same level of creativity on display here with some of the bosses, who challenge our titular street performer Penny as the escape the evil emperor and their penguin army with the help of a newly-living yo-yo. It’s set to come out in the earlier part of 2024, where hopefully it can get the further attention that its gleefully colorful mayhem deserves.
